Employer found liable to pay $.3M to 22 of 58 abandoned workers

The Department of Labor has awarded a total of $307,142.18 in unpaid and contractual wages plus damages to 22 of 58 abandoned construction workers.

Labor Administrative Hearing Officer Jerry Cody ruled that Elephant Corp. is liable to pay the 22 complainants $83,212.69 in unpaid wages and $70,358.40 in contractual wages.

Cody found Elephant Corp. to pay liquidated damages to each 22 complainants in an amount equal to the total unpaid wages or for a total amount of $153,571.09.

Cody ordered Elephant Corp. to pay the awards within 10 days and if it fails, the bonding companies—Equitable Insurance Co. Inc., Traders Insurance Underwriter Inc. and Oceania Insurance Corp.—shall be obligated to satisfy all or part of the judgment.

Elephant Corp. and its president Jai Hyun Kim, who departed the CNMI, are sanctioned to pay $14,500 for abandoning 29 complainant-employees and an additional amount of $2,000, for employing complainant Mingyu Cui, without authorization then abandoning her employment.

Elephant Corp and Kim are permanently barred disqualified from employing nonresident workers in the Commonwealth.

The 22 given awards were Jose Cervantes, Yongnan Che, Aurelio Del Prado, Raymond Elayda, Lorenzo Felipe, Quirino Gallar Jr., Welly Inao, Jonathan Jacela, Salvador Kiseo, McDuffie Llaban, Armando Macatantan, Raffie Maglaya, Domingo Meijia, Bernie Panalagao Jr., Onofre Rimorin, Wilson Rondares, Enrico Santos, Nemesio Savellano, Dante Sorrosa, Ricardo Sorrosa, Froilan Supan Sr., and Cecilia Tiamzon.

They were also given transfer reliefs.

Not awarded were Edgardo Borja, Xiang Lau Cui, Yang Jun Cui, Domingo Garcia, Nena R. Savellano, Jun Gab Yoo, and Yinan Zheng. They were not present at the hearing and either never entered the CNMI or have departed and transferred.

Nena Savellano was also ordered to depart the Commonwealth for submitting fraudulent employment contracts and engaging in sponsorship arrangements.

The Labor case was filed as a result of the sudden closure of Elephant Corp.’s business Top Construction in Nov. 2005. The respondents’ 58 workers were abandoned.

The case was only for the claims of 30 employees. The remaining workers’ claims will be handled by Labor in other cases.

On Nov. 27, 2005, the company’s president, Jai Hyun Kim, boarded an airplane bound for Korea, abandoning his entire workforce on Saipan. He did not inform Labor that he was closing his business.

Cody said an employer who knows that his or her business is about to close had a duty to give advance written notice of the closure to the Labor director and the employees, and to pay the employees their back wages, plus wages for the advance notice period.

“In this case, the employer acted irresponsibly as it gave no notice of closure and its president continued running the business until he simply packed and left the CNMI like a thief in the night,” Cody said.

The abandonment left the workers with no compensation for back wages or contractual wages owed under the contract.

The sudden departure also left the workers with the problem of having to seek immediate authorization from Labor for temporary work, transfer or repatriation, he said.

Cody said it placed a financial burden on the bonding companies that were left as surety for the unpaid wages owed by the absent employer.